I came across this excerpt from answers of the now deleted stackoverflow question on new programming slang where it says:
Sometimes, you just have to talk a problem out; for example: Someone put a rubber duck on the monitor, so he could talk to it, therefore, rubberducking is talking your way through a problem.
Trying to translate this to German caused several headaches:
- Leo translates a "rubber duck" with: Badeente, Gummiente.
- Both these terms are not listed by Duden.
- The corresponding Wikipedia article linked it to "Quietscheentchen" a term that is at least known by Duden.
- Still, there is not much help on deciding which of these terms is actually popular.
- A Google Ngram indicates that it may be Gummiente.
- Finally, a research on Urban Dictionary revealed meanings we don't want to translate.
This where I got stuck.
Is there a well known German term for "rubber duck" that could be used in the context above? What would a German programmer say to his/her "rubber duck", or for "rubberducking"?